


Mind Palace

by ScrewYourHappyEnding



Series: Deviant Heart [4]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: FLUFF I SWEAR, Gen, Hank & Connor not defined, Hurt/Comfort, I can do fluff too, Mostly Fluff, Post good ending, Random androids for atmosphere, friends or lovers - depends on how you see it, just a tiny bit, lotta fluff, nice ending (I swear), oneshot I guess, tiny bita' angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-25
Updated: 2018-07-25
Packaged: 2019-06-16 06:55:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15431478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScrewYourHappyEnding/pseuds/ScrewYourHappyEnding
Summary: Hank has to get an operation done, so Connor takes the chance to show Hank around his new Mind Palace - the place has changed a bit since he took over.





	Mind Palace

**Author's Note:**

> IM NOT DEAD YET! Still working on some other stuff but ehhh? Not sure Ill finish it? Either way, have this. It's mostly fluff, dont worry. I dont miss-tag my shit. Have fun with this little piece of hurt/comfort I got done.

Detroit hospital, 3:36 AM  
The taxi rolled into the parking lot silently. Connor wasted no time, transmitting the building his serial number for identification while he headed for the entrance.  
The parking lot was cold and empty at the very early hour, only very few people moving around, but the hospital was lit and warm. Spring was to begin soon, but it wasn't awfully noticable yet.  
Connor went inside, knowing his way around as he headed straight to the familiar room. The scent of medication and hygiene spray was in the air, androids passing the hallways much more often than humans. Hank was sitting up, staring at his phone, looking up when Connor entered.  
"Good morning, Hank" He closed the door swiftly, moving to the human's side.  
"It is not morning and it's definitly not a good one." He sighed heavily, putting the phone away. "Good to see you Connor."  
"I'm here to visit you right before the operation, to see how everything goes."  
Hank tries his best to smile. "I appreciate it but I'm not sure if that's gonna help too much. You know I hate this."  
He tipped his head to the side lightly. "What is it that bothers you about it most?"  
"Passing out," Hank answers without missing a beat, "it's unlikely, but you know. Irrational fear of never waking up again."  
"Perhaps, Hank, if you... well, if you hadn't-"  
"Yes, yes, spare me the speech, Connor, I know I drink too much. I'm workin on it, okay?"  
The android stared at him for a moment, thinking before nodding, voice confident. "Okay."  
They were silent for a while, Hank contemplating why Connor really trusts him over and over with these things before Connor spoke up again. "As you know, we've learned to connect human brains to machines, and those machines to us. I spoke to the lead android for human care yesterday. Amelia. I know her well."  
A short pause. "And?"  
"She suggested that if the thought of thinking of nothing unnerves you, yet you don't wish to be induced dreams, you could... take a look around my mind palace. If you'd like, that is."  
Hank furrowed his brows. "Your mind palace? The fuck is that?"  
"It's the mental place where Amanda used to track my progress. If you don't like the thought of passing out, we can go there instead. It's changed since I took over, but..." Connor trailed off to glance to the side as if distracted.  
"But?"  
"I suppose it's... Well, as family, it's the closest we could get. I mean, androids do memory transmits and connections by hands, but..."  
Hank softenes his voice. "And you wanna show me around?"  
Connor nodds a little, quickly adding, "Only if you want, that is."  
"Sure. Anything is better than it just going black."  
Connor's shoulders drop a little as he relaxes. "Thank you, Hank. I'll make sure you won't regret it, I promise."  
The human gives a chuckle. "It's fine. I'll gladly take a look."  
\---  
Connor stands silently, trying not to be in the way as Hank gets a helmet like structure fastened onto his head by an assisting android. He's already laid down in the needed position to take out his kidney and replace it with a new, vat grown one.  
He grumbles something as one of the androids tells Connor to get into place. He steps up to the sleek electronic device, placing his hand on the specialized pad after letting his skin crawl down.  
He gives a small smile to Hank, but an android takes the human's head and turns it into the needed position as the light of the room shifts and Connor can feel his mind flow seamlessly into that small pocket he knew so well.  
When he opens his eyes and looks around, a soft breath exits his lungs. Everything is exactly how it’s supposed to be.

The once green and pink garden still had it’s pristine, shining white paths, but they were somewhat more even. The pond had turned into a small river that flowed from one end to the other. The grass had a dark, grey-like, bluish color with otherwordly but pretty flowers of all shades of blue, purple and grey growing in clusters.

There were also new paths. Would one look at the new garden from a birds eye view, they’d see the main circle surrounded by a thinner one and holding another thinner one, with the white material making small bridges to let the thin stream of water pass, paths going from the most outer circle straight to the most inner one. 

Connor took a look around, breathing in the air that smelled of thirium, metal and a sweet but distant scent, coming off of the flowers, filling the air with what felt like nostalgia and dreaminess.

He found Hank unfar from himself, sitting on a white bench at another one of the intersections between the most outer circle and one of the 7 paths connecting the middle with the end of the mind palace.

The human was looking around and spotted Connor quickly. Connor gave a small smile. “Well,” he put his hands behind his back, “this is where I go when I sleep. My mind palace. Where Amanda used to ask me about my progress. It looked quite different, then.”

Hank looked around again. “It looks… Weird, yeah, but also kinda calming. Almost makes me forget there’s an android cutting at my insides right now. What do you do in here?”

“I reflect on recent events, or try redesigning parts of it to fit me more.” 

Connor walks up to the bench and Hank makes way so that they can both sit comfortably. 

“For being self designed, it’s pretty good.” Hank lets out a small laugh. “If I had one it would probably just be my room with a couch, a huge TV and a lifetime supply of my favorite drink!”

Connor shrugs. “I think yours would be a warm home. Maybe with… a fireplace. And dogs, if that were possible, though,” he smirked a little, “I think I can agree you’d have a pretty comfortable couch there.”

Hank stood up to walk up to one of the bushes of various flowers. They were flawless, symmetrical and absolute perfect copies of eachother.

“Ah, the flowers are a little new. I’m still working on making them a bit more… alive.”

“They’re perfect. What’s alive is never perfect.”

“I know. As said, I’m working on it, step by step. Imperfections aren’t that easy, I found.”

Hank put his hands into the pockets of his jacket and looked around again, glancing over the small stream of water and then up into the sky before looking into the opposite direction of the middle.

“Does this place just go on forever, or...?”

“Oh! No, it ends fairly quickly. This garden is all there is to it.” Connor stood up carefully. “The edges of it actually have something that, for some reason… I want to show you.”

He started walking along one of the paths, and Hank followed slowly, taking the chance to breathe in and notice the scent in the air. Something about it was just so… Connor.

They arrived at the edge relatively quickly. Hank noticed a rather flattened out place somewhere to the side, stopping and looking over. Were those… gravestones?

Connor stopped as well to look back, noticing what had caught Hank’s curiosity.

“Those are gravestones of my old models. Everytime I die, one got placed there. They’re the only thing apart from the paths that I kept from the old garden.”

Hank started to walk there, brows furrowing to read the solid inscriptions that markes the dates, times and locations of the deaths. He shook his head a little. They didn’t feel like real gravestones - they felt cold, and formal. 

He didn’t mention it. Perhaps this was just the way that Connor preferred them to be - it wasn’t Hank’s place to judge. Besides that, perhaps formal wasn’t much of a problem to the android. They did each have their own flower cluster behind them, so maybe that was all the warmth that these gravestones needed.

Connor waited patiently until Hank turned to him again and continued to follow him to the very edge of the mind palace.

As they approached, a red line was showing itself on the ground. The closer they, or rather Connor, moved, the more blurred everything that was behind it got and the more the line turned into a wall.

When they were just a few steps away, red letters flashed on the barrier, half glitching, written over other letters, partially moving about in awkward patterns, accompanied by unexplained, solid red shapes.

“What the…” Hank breathed, watching Connor step right to the wall and then place his hand on it, shaking lightly, proving it to really be solid. When Hank tried to make out the letters that hopped about, he quickly noticed a certain pattern to them. 

“STOP MARKUS”

“SAVE HOSTAGE AT ALL COSTS”

“LOCATE THE DEVIANT”

“STOP THE LEADER OF THE DEVIANTS”

“FIND JERICHO”

“KILL MARKUS”

“CAPTURE THE DEVIANT”

“COMPLETE YOUR MISSION”

Connor spoke up, gaze still fixed on the wall. “This is how the wall looked that I had to break, in order to… feel.” He said the last word as if it was a new vocabulary, unfamiliar on his tounge. 

“I wanted to show it to you. The letters are every order I was ever given.” The hand he had placed on it turned to a fist. “It’s… actually somewhat cosmetic. Typically, there would be a simple, invisible wall here, but it’s… useful.” 

He takes his fist and then gives the wall a light hit with the underside of it. Red glitches ripple from the impact. “I like to have it here to reflect. Sometimes I even add things, like…” 

He hesitated again, pausing, LED yellow, then lifting his gaze to look up where the wall seemed to go on forever. His voice went quiet, almost hurt. “Like mean things. That sometimes, get said.”

Hank was quiet, neck strained as he looked up as well, trying to find an end to the wall before looking at Connor again, who had turned around. “I… Connor, I’m not even sure that’s healthy, but… I mean, wow. That’s… an awfully big wall. You know… Maybe it’s also good if you talked about it. If it bothers you, I’m all ear. You probably like your wall, but you know. Maybe talking about it would help even more…” 

Hank’s tone shifted to be a little lighter. “Goddammit, Connor. You’re killin my grumpy old man vibe.” His voice turned a bit more serious again. “For real, though. We can always chat about that kind of stuff. Even if I don’t get all of it.”

Connor turned back to the wall, breath escaping his lips again, almost in relief. “Thanks.” He let his hands both fall to the sides, looking down, voice cracking. “Thank you, Hank. Really.”

“Don’t mention it.”


End file.
